Rose and I are so proud of Sylvia. She did her SAS this year and she scored a 65, which entitles her to half-price tuition at Suffolk University.

Of course, I'm an employee at the university and children of the faculty get free tuition anyway but it’s still an amazing achievement. She’s worked really hard for this and it’s paid off.

I wish she was planning on majoring in something a little more practical than Literature but I'm biting my tongue on that, as she’s proven me wrong before.

I used to get on Sylvia’s case about spending so much time watching movies, insisting that her grades would suffer. I definitely had to eat my words there. She can obviously regulate herself pretty well.

I wish Levi and William were as conscientious as their older sister. They’re both champions at “forgetting” to do their homework and then doing a rush job on it in the morning before school.

They both would prefer goofing off to doing anything else, really. It’s a bit of a worry. They don’t get the grades Sylvia does.

Levi is constantly active. Thank goodness we’re having pretty mild weather right now and it’s not too cold to be outside, because he’s the kind of kid who really needs that time.

Will is all about anything mechanical, which right now means multiple remote control toys. I feel like he’ll probably be a gearhead when he gets older.

Rose isn't worried about them at all. She says they’re still young and we really have no idea how they’ll handle high school. They could turn around completely.

I don’t think Rose would be that concerned if they never do though, whereas that’s a big fear of mine. I want them to be successful people.

Will and Levi are going into their last year of primary school next year and I’m hoping Sylvia’s influence starts rubbing off on them. Sylvia did manage to at least get the boys a little more interested in reading, so I have hope!

Sylvia has been writing a lot lately too. She was very secretive about it for a long time but she’s finally allowed us to read some of it.

She’s almost finished her first novel right now and we’ve read bits and pieces of it. We’re biased but it’s really good!

Rose is trying to convince her to submit some of her writing to the Young Writers' section in the magazine she edits but so far, she hasn't been successful.

She’s better than she used to be but Sylvia is still a little shy about her writing.

She does want to do it professionally one day (along with acting and directing), so I suppose it’s something she’ll have to push past eventually.

She’s not shy about acting. She’s been rehearsing monologues in the upstairs landing for years now and has performed in a couple of school plays. I’d be okay with community theatre, if we had it here, but I don’t want her doing anything else until she’s 18 and can decide for herself.

She has plenty of other things to keep her busy. I think she’d miss hanging out with Alice if she did anything more.

They’ve been friends for years now and until recently, neither of them were dating, so they were real partners in crime, so to speak.

Earlier this year though, Matthew Lane got dumped and Alice swooped right in to make her move. She had had a crush on him for a long time and didn't want to miss her chance.

Sylvia thinks Matthew is a jerk and hasn't been too impressed by Alice bringing him along almost every time they meet up lately.

Sylvia and Matthew have never fought or anything. She just doesn't like him and feels like a bit of a third wheel when Alice insists on toting him around with them.

She’s complained about it all too often at home and I’m not sure what to tell her. Hopefully, it’s just because it's new and it'll peter out once the novelty wears off for them.

I'm always a bit stumped with Sylvia asks me for advice. Rose is really better at all that interpersonal stuff.

I'm a bit anti-social, I guess, but I was born into a very social family. Rose had to almost drag me out to meet up with Wade, Amelia and my parents the other night.

I see Wade at work every day so there was not much catching up to do on that end but I hadn't seen Mum and Dad or Amelia for a couple of weeks or so, so it was due.

They’re currently all really excited about Sophie’s upcoming wedding, which she has only just set a date for, despite being engaged since last year.

She and Oliver are saying it’ll be in December next year but haven’t actually booked anything yet.

Sophie has promised that she’ll wear the dress my grandmother, my mum and Amelia all wore and that’s basically that’s settled at this point.

This hasn't stopped anyone from talking about it like it’s happening next week, for some reason.

I can’t say I'm on the edge of my seat about this wedding like everybody else but it is pretty crazy to think I have a niece old enough to get married and a daughter so close to heading off to college.

I've never really felt middle-aged before now but I guess there’s no more denying it now.

Extras:

The Draper family portrait! Lake and Kendal and all their kids, kids-in-law and grandchildren. This was before Gemma aged up, obviously, so she's still a babe in arms here.

Notes:

Title is from My Vien Ilin by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

So happy about Sylvia's SAS! I always knew she'd get in but I think 65 is my highest score yet. I'm going to have to start noting the SAS in my profiles somewhere, so I can keep track.

I have to get a no slapping mod for the telescope. The sim who comes to slap your sims when they use it during the day is always the first sim created (earliest character file number), which is why it's always Mortimer Goth in Pleasantview. In Sullivan, it's Lake. It doesn't seem right to have him coming in slapping his daughter! Apart from the horrifying nature of that scenario, he wouldn't even know. He lives on the other side of the map.

This is Sylvia's last round as a teen but also Will and Levi's last round as kids. I'm looking forward to aging them and finally being able to tell them apart. I almost always struggle with my twins until they're teens. They don't even have to look alike. I remember mixing up Claudia and Victoria when they were kids too and they don't even share a hair colour.

I don't think I've mentioned it here before but I have started to build my high school! I haven't got very far yet but I'll get there. Of course, there will be a lot tour when it's done, which won't be for a few months, I'd say!

10 comments:

You should put the scores in profiles, I had to do that when Lainey was at university, because I knew I'd forget! That's an extremely awesome score, I can say that none of my sims have ever scored that high! My university has much lower standards. ;) I need to get that hack on no slapping too, lol on him slapping his daughter, that is too funny! And totally informational, I never knew that about who came to do the slapping.

I can't belive the kids are all getting so big, I am quite excited to see them all age up to their next life stage though, and yeah, I think Joanna and Rose are pushing that middle-aged envelope. Pretty funny about mixing up Claudia and Victoria, I have a very difficult time with twins that have the same hair color, Julius always wore orange, and Elias wore red, otherwise I had no clue.

It was nice to see the family all gather together, it seems Rose sees her family more than Joanna does, which fits with her anti-social behavior. Hopefully the boys do well that she doesn't have to stress too much about their success.

I went through and added them to my profiles last night and I was right - Sylvia has the highest yet. She beat the previous title holder, Justin, by just one point. Heh, I remember you saying that you lowered the standards a bit when you adapted the system. This one seems to work for my sims pretty well. I was surprised I didn't have to adjust it at all, because I don't know how hard I really thought about it!

Well, you might have noticed Levi is always in red and Will is always in green. And I still mix them up, because I can never remember which colour I assigned to which kid without checking their profiles!

Yeah, Rose sees her family all the time. Her family is also much larger than Joanna's though, so there are a lot more people to see (or avoid seeing, lol). The boys pulled their grades up by the end of the session but I'm not yet sure what aspiration they'll be when they age up - that will probably decide their success, in Joanna's eyes!

I can remember when Rose and Joanna got together, so it is hard for me to believe they are middle-aged! It does seem to sneak up on you like that, though.

Sylvia is one impressive person all around! Her list of accomplishments and activities just went on and on, and I was impressed that a sim teen could juggle all that. Seems like she got the brilliance of Joanna and the social skills of Rose.

It is true to life how the concerns about Will and Levi's academic motivation bring out the differences in the way Joanna and Rose see the world. Probably more than just their own discussions or arguments might, because you can't hide your values and dreams or compromise on them when it comes to your kids.

So excited about your high school, both seeing the lot tour, and eventually seeing your kids there and all the interactions and developments that ensue.

I do the same thing with multiples. I was almost a month ahead on my blog posts that were cued up, which I found I didn't like, so I have slowed down and done some other projects, but to get to the point, Cacey had triplets (thank you EA glitch). Those were my first triplets ever in Sims, I believe. I had to dress them distinctly to go with their personalities so I could keep them apart, and I've had to do that with twins in Sims 2 many times. And they weren't identical either.

Sylvia sets a fairly high standard for her little brothers to live up to, I think! She is definitely more like Joanna on an academic level but I don't think she's quite as switched on socially as Rose is. I wouldn't call her antisocial but she's not a social butterfly either!

Rose would just be happy if her kids were happy but Joanna would struggle if they weren't successful in some way she sees as significant, if they didn't go to college or if they didn't get a great job. I think Sylvia will be all right in that respect but I'm interested to see how the boys go when they get older.

I am really looking forward to getting the high school done. I've missed having a school in the hood. Not even necessarily for the school updates, which are always kind of nuts to put together, but just for setting up little scenes that might take place there. I can't wait to have that back again. :)

Oh man, triplets? I would have no hope of telling them apart! I am so useless. A glitch (pre-Sullivan) once left me with sextuplets. That was insanely and confusing. Especially seeing it was a Chinese family I'd made, so they all had black hair and brown eyes. I had no clue who anyone was, ever, lol. Their faces were all quite distinct but I just couldn't keep them straight!

Wow, Sylvia is such a smart kid! I was about to say something about Nick, but he graduated before you started using SAS scores, if I remember correctly. Funny, I can always tell between my multiples, usually since after they age up, they usually get different hairstyles and most of the time they look nothing alike (see Sarah and Veronica). The only ones I foresee trouble with is Ava and Cassie, since they really look identical.Anyway, I love seeing Joanna try to keep up with her family despite her anti-social tendencies. I was worried when she was young she might end up an old cat lady.

Yes, Nick went to uni when the criteria for free tuition was earning 8 scholarships. I think there were three other sims who did the same before him as well. I'm not sure yet whether earning free tuition will be more or less common under the new system. I haven't had anyone get there yet!

I don't think I've ever had twins with the same hairstyle and it just doesn't help me at all, lol. Looking nothing alike doesn't help me either! I think it's just that I find sim kids a bit samey (mostly personality wise) in general until they get an aspiration when they become teens. So having two sim kids exactly the same age in the house just doesn't help me!

Spoiler alert: none of my sims will ever become old cat ladies, lol! I get so, so bored playing single sims that I refuse to do it to myself. Though I am considering playing Chris on his own for a round or two. We'll see.

Wow, I remember when Rose didn't like Kendal very much and now she's almost 50!!!! Yikes!!! I like how you worked in the bit about faculty and dependents getting free tuition, I always forget about that.

I can't believe Sylvia is 16 allready and that she'll be starting college soon! It can't be easy when your best friend is all over a boy and wants to spend all her time with him, especiall when you don't like the boy at all!

I love the difference in character between Sylvia and the boys! Maybe the boys will lose a little bit of their playfullness and focus a little bit more on their school work when they become teens

It seems a bit crazy, doesn't it? It doesn't feel like that long ago that Rose and Joanna adopted her. But I'm really looking forward to aging up Sylvia. Unfortunately for her, Alice and Matthew seem pretty into each other, so she might not be able to get rid of him any time soon!

You never know. I've not yet decided what aspiration the boys will be - it'll probably be a spur of the moment decision when I age them up - so they could go either way!